By dying before death comes you can be alive both before and after death.
We have so many evanescent I s in us. They smear over all through us and claim our self-identity. They have mesmerised, hypnotised and brain-washed us into so many self-positions and self-stances. We are alive all the time to these ephemeral colours we have given to us, by choice, by socialisation and by self-compulsive ways of feeling. If we can die in all these false identities, which act as false passports landing us in irrelevant fates, then we will begin to see that death is the worst superstition we fondly hug to. Not only Vedanta is never tired of driving home to us this blatant lie we always feed us with, even the Poet of Avon is saying in the Sonnets --
"Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;
Within be fed, without be rich no more.
So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,
And, Death once dead, there's no more dying then." *
Is religion necessary for man? Should man be ruled by primordial fears.? By religion should he be reaching the past or is there religion which can make him look towards the future?
Is religion necessary for man? Should man be ruled by primordial fears.? By religion should he be reaching the past or is there religion which can make him look towards the future?
***
At last after reading so much and thinking and breaking my head over all these years of my life, a sort of clarity has come to my understanding, that I am really Atman and not the body-nerves-mind-brain complex. Of course the clarity is flickering like the lamp in winds. But I feel confident that the light is such that it cannot black out. But I feel a little diffident to openly say this. Because it took me so many years of hard toil in thinking work. Reading, both extensive and intensive, has stood me a lot in this personal adventure. I think I am of low caliber in my mental acumen to have taken so long to reach at least this much inkling about so basic an essential nature. Then why should I be so unashamed in openly saying this? Don't know. May be to cheer you up.
***
Actually there is no event. subject vs object is not there. Only Knowing, which can never be objectified, is there. It is peculiar and prior to all events.
But fundamental to all equations of knowing vs known there is a Knowing which is constant and which betrays any attempt to objectify itself either as a known or as a knowledge.
To have something to know is understandable. But to know oneself? How?
***
A little understanding is not dangerous but a bit troublesome. As long as there was no doubt regarding the definition of my self my decisions and self-attributions were authentically stemming from and routed to me as the so-born-person. Now all intellectual processes stagger this way and that. Total ignorance seems a blessing, though it is not. Sleep is sweet. Slumber is wonderful. But a whiff of wake up ? Does it underline the slumber or highlight the waking? Too difficult to say, especially when the sleeping and the sleepless are one and the same.
***
Is it correct to translate 'cit' of Sanskrit as conscious being? When we say 'conscious' the operation requires something else to become the object. The operation when classified and named on the basis of essential characteristic is 'consciousness'. But in 'cit' the essence which does the operation of being conscious is captured and named, I think. Or perhaps the recursive usage has trimmed the word 'cit' into such precision in Sanskrit, may be. But the point is objectless consciousness. The point is if the object is not there in consciousness then the subject also is not there and also the relational correspondence of consciousness-operation is also absent. The abiding essence is 'cit'.
***
Philosophy, science, religion and poetry have long consumed my interest, life and involvement rather than the problems of society. As a result I find myself poor in the areas of social interests and cares. Perhaps I could have chosen differently and involved myself in social reconstruction. But why I chose what I have chosen eludes me. I am not sorry about my choice. But more and more when I realise the importance of social reconstruction and when I become more and more aware of the maladies of the past and more so of the present and the future, I doubt sometimes in what way all my philosophy and in depth study of metaphysical subjects is going to be relevant and meaningful in the evolving contexts. I have a philosophy of my own, which I will write some day. But a weighing dejection sets on me occasionally, what is all these worth and more so what my philosophy is going to be worth. But I have to be what I am, what balance of worth may weigh on my side.
***
I was thinking about J Krishnamurthi's saying - 'Truth is a pathless land.' And I was thinking about the Name of Sriman Narayana in Sri Vishnu Sahasranama, viz., 'Yoga:'. He is the supreme goal to be attained. And he himself is the Way, Yoga: of attaining it.
And while I was going through one of the twelve volumes of 'M, the Apostle and the Evangelist', tr from original Bengali book by Swami Nityatmananda, I came across this from the mouth of M, where he reminiscences about Sri Thakur (Sri Ramakrishna).
"M :- Thakur told us, 'Once I felt the desire to go to a limitless tract of land to see how the animals and birds live there. While returning from my native place I got down the bullock cart and ran towards a field. I saw that in the middle of this vast expanse rows of ants were moving holding a piece of paddy in their mouth.'.
***
Actually there is no event. subject vs object is not there. Only Knowing, which can never be objectified, is there. It is peculiar and prior to all events.
But fundamental to all equations of knowing vs known there is a Knowing which is constant and which betrays any attempt to objectify itself either as a known or as a knowledge.
To have something to know is understandable. But to know oneself? How?
***
A little understanding is not dangerous but a bit troublesome. As long as there was no doubt regarding the definition of my self my decisions and self-attributions were authentically stemming from and routed to me as the so-born-person. Now all intellectual processes stagger this way and that. Total ignorance seems a blessing, though it is not. Sleep is sweet. Slumber is wonderful. But a whiff of wake up ? Does it underline the slumber or highlight the waking? Too difficult to say, especially when the sleeping and the sleepless are one and the same.
***
Is it correct to translate 'cit' of Sanskrit as conscious being? When we say 'conscious' the operation requires something else to become the object. The operation when classified and named on the basis of essential characteristic is 'consciousness'. But in 'cit' the essence which does the operation of being conscious is captured and named, I think. Or perhaps the recursive usage has trimmed the word 'cit' into such precision in Sanskrit, may be. But the point is objectless consciousness. The point is if the object is not there in consciousness then the subject also is not there and also the relational correspondence of consciousness-operation is also absent. The abiding essence is 'cit'.
***
Philosophy, science, religion and poetry have long consumed my interest, life and involvement rather than the problems of society. As a result I find myself poor in the areas of social interests and cares. Perhaps I could have chosen differently and involved myself in social reconstruction. But why I chose what I have chosen eludes me. I am not sorry about my choice. But more and more when I realise the importance of social reconstruction and when I become more and more aware of the maladies of the past and more so of the present and the future, I doubt sometimes in what way all my philosophy and in depth study of metaphysical subjects is going to be relevant and meaningful in the evolving contexts. I have a philosophy of my own, which I will write some day. But a weighing dejection sets on me occasionally, what is all these worth and more so what my philosophy is going to be worth. But I have to be what I am, what balance of worth may weigh on my side.
***
I was thinking about J Krishnamurthi's saying - 'Truth is a pathless land.' And I was thinking about the Name of Sriman Narayana in Sri Vishnu Sahasranama, viz., 'Yoga:'. He is the supreme goal to be attained. And he himself is the Way, Yoga: of attaining it.
And while I was going through one of the twelve volumes of 'M, the Apostle and the Evangelist', tr from original Bengali book by Swami Nityatmananda, I came across this from the mouth of M, where he reminiscences about Sri Thakur (Sri Ramakrishna).
"M :- Thakur told us, 'Once I felt the desire to go to a limitless tract of land to see how the animals and birds live there. While returning from my native place I got down the bullock cart and ran towards a field. I saw that in the middle of this vast expanse rows of ants were moving holding a piece of paddy in their mouth.'.
'Just see, how He preserves the whole universe. He has arranged all kinds of food for all - for the gross, the subtle and the causal bodies.' (pp247, Volume IX, M, the Apostle and the Evangelist, Sri Ma Trust)
Somehow the inter-textuality rings on contemplating about it. Truth, the pathless land is also the Providence taking care of.
Yoga: Yogavidam Netaa
He remains the Way and the Leader
***
'Can you become an occidental of occidentals in your spirit of equality, freedom, work, and energy, and at the same time a Hindu to the very backbone in religious culture and instincts? This is to be done and we will do it. You are all born to do it.'
Vivekananda
*
This statement is very pregnant with implications. Thinking over and over on that makes me understand his deep vision.
*
Is there anybody ready to emboss a significant saying in real gold? If there is one, this is the saying for him --
'No man, no nation, my son, can hate others and live. India's doom was sealed the very day they invented the word Mlechchha and stopped from communion with others.'
Vivekananda
***
'Perfect life is a contradiction in terms. Therefore we must always expect to find things not up to our highest ideal. Knowing this we are bound to make the best of everything.'
Vivekananda.
Life means imperfect. If made perfect, life will not be life. Perfect by its own standard or by what standard? So the highest ideal, does it come out of life itself or our of reading and understanding? So the Ideal and the Perfect is conceptual but may not be totally Real. Is it? Is it a sustaining 'Difference' between Idealism and Realism? And the practicality is to make life as much near to the Ideal and the Perfect. Is it so?
***
I find Swami Tapasyananda's translation of Srimad Bhagavatham, a treat in itself. It is not just a translation. He goes into the nuances of abstract very ably. His choice of words and expressing the subtleties in right measure of elaboration add an enhancing charm. It seems never an excess, I think. The memories of meeting him and talking to him many times during 80s and 90s make me nostalgic of the Chennai Math. What a sweet old man he was then!
***
Just now I am returning from Navarathri Puja in my friend's house. Beautiful lights, decorations, sweet smells, feminine sanctity, such warmth and affections, so tasty dishes - Wov! we make a Festival of Senses and through that create a mood of the Supersensual. After initial hi hi s, the mind begins to zoom into the bhakthi aspects. And slowly the mind begins to travel towards rarefied levels. Oh ! What a contrivance our forefathers have hit upon! Hats off!
***
The ultimate attainment is Advaita
Not knowing this,
should I suffer
More and more in mind,
being torpid
like the dull-heads
Swayed by the ghost of I ?
Oh Thee!
who are Pure
and the Total Whole,
Out and out against all blemishes,
Limitless,
Ever in the self-nature,
Never becoming alien
to the bliss and power
of the intrinsic Self-nature,
Thee!
who art the One,
flourishing
in the fructified Grace!
-- Tr by myself of Thayumanavar's song.
the original --
அத்வைதம் பெறும் பேறு
என்று அறியாமல்
யான் எனும் பேய் அகந்தையோடு
மத்தமதியினர் போல
மனம் கிடப்ப
இன்னமின்னம் வருந்துவேனோ?
சுத்தபரி பூரணமாய்,
நின்மலமாய்,
அகண்டிதமாய்ச்
சொரூபானந்தச் சக்திகள்
நீங் காதவணம் தன்மயமாய்,
அருள்பழுத்துத்
தழைத்த ஒன்றே!
***
Sri Ramakrishna wrought many miracles. Not the miracles of matter but the miracles of comprehensive understanding and empathetic integration. He took the directness of feeling from the paths of faith and combined it with the broadness of engaging in diverse discourse of the philosophical scholarship.
***
Have you ever stopped and thought about 'what is pleasure? what is enjoyment? joy? happiness?' How pleasure and thought tie up? A very interesting discussion is here in this conversation between J Krishnamurthy and Mr Anderson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeOS5seSl_I
***
My book in Tamil on Bhagavath Vishaya, viz., 'பகவத் விஷயத்தை எண்ணும் போது' is coming out in a short time. I have written this dedication page in that --
"யாரைக் கற்கும் போது
எந்த விஷயம் புரிய வருகிறது என்பது
அறிவின் தேட்டத்தில் விந்தையான கணம்தான்.
அறிவுகொளுத்துவோர்தாம்
உண்மையில் ஆசிரியர்கள்.
அயின் ரேன்டைப் படிக்கும் போது
அரிஸ்டாடில் புரிந்தது;
அரிஸ்டாடிலில் ஆழும் போது
விசிட்ட அத்வைத தர்சனம் புரிந்தது;
எனவே யாருக்கு அர்ப்பணிப்பது?
அந்த யவனாசிரியருக்கா?
அல்லது அயினாசிரியைக்கா?"
Translated it runs thus --
It is a strange moment to say,
What subject we come to understand,
When? Reading whom?
Studying something seemingly different?
Who makes us understand,
They are the Masters, really;
Reading Ayn Rand,
I came to understand Aristotle;
Delving into Aristotle,
Visishtadvaita Darsana became clear;
Then....to whom am I to dedicate?
To the Master from Ionia?
Or to the teacher Ayn?
***
Begun reading 'My Life and Quest' by Arthur Osborne, Sri Ramanasramam, 4th Ed., 2013. I like the book for the facile style of the author. He is able to pack very many mental depths into his constructions. Of course he is very lame, when he tries to compare and draw a uniform line through the religions semitic and Asian. From his writings one is able to understand much about the war years and the silent and ebullient quests of human beings across the globe. The sweat of the continents and the spiritual breeze of the East, are shown in realistic terms by the author. Gone half way. I will be back with it to you after finishing. But a very good purchase, that too in this scorching heat, such a cool and soothing reading!
***
Here is one quote from Bergen Evans --
"In the last analysis all tyranny rests on fraud, on getting someone to accept false assumptions, and any man who for one moment abandons or suspends the questioning spirit has for that moment betrayed humanity."
***
Anything that appeals to our reason, let us accept, even if a child should say it. On the other hand, anything that is repugnant to reason, let us reject, even though it might come from Brahma.
Somehow the inter-textuality rings on contemplating about it. Truth, the pathless land is also the Providence taking care of.
Yoga: Yogavidam Netaa
He remains the Way and the Leader
***
'Can you become an occidental of occidentals in your spirit of equality, freedom, work, and energy, and at the same time a Hindu to the very backbone in religious culture and instincts? This is to be done and we will do it. You are all born to do it.'
Vivekananda
*
This statement is very pregnant with implications. Thinking over and over on that makes me understand his deep vision.
*
Is there anybody ready to emboss a significant saying in real gold? If there is one, this is the saying for him --
'No man, no nation, my son, can hate others and live. India's doom was sealed the very day they invented the word Mlechchha and stopped from communion with others.'
Vivekananda
***
'Perfect life is a contradiction in terms. Therefore we must always expect to find things not up to our highest ideal. Knowing this we are bound to make the best of everything.'
Vivekananda.
Life means imperfect. If made perfect, life will not be life. Perfect by its own standard or by what standard? So the highest ideal, does it come out of life itself or our of reading and understanding? So the Ideal and the Perfect is conceptual but may not be totally Real. Is it? Is it a sustaining 'Difference' between Idealism and Realism? And the practicality is to make life as much near to the Ideal and the Perfect. Is it so?
***
I find Swami Tapasyananda's translation of Srimad Bhagavatham, a treat in itself. It is not just a translation. He goes into the nuances of abstract very ably. His choice of words and expressing the subtleties in right measure of elaboration add an enhancing charm. It seems never an excess, I think. The memories of meeting him and talking to him many times during 80s and 90s make me nostalgic of the Chennai Math. What a sweet old man he was then!
***
Just now I am returning from Navarathri Puja in my friend's house. Beautiful lights, decorations, sweet smells, feminine sanctity, such warmth and affections, so tasty dishes - Wov! we make a Festival of Senses and through that create a mood of the Supersensual. After initial hi hi s, the mind begins to zoom into the bhakthi aspects. And slowly the mind begins to travel towards rarefied levels. Oh ! What a contrivance our forefathers have hit upon! Hats off!
***
The ultimate attainment is Advaita
Not knowing this,
should I suffer
More and more in mind,
being torpid
like the dull-heads
Swayed by the ghost of I ?
Oh Thee!
who are Pure
and the Total Whole,
Out and out against all blemishes,
Limitless,
Ever in the self-nature,
Never becoming alien
to the bliss and power
of the intrinsic Self-nature,
Thee!
who art the One,
flourishing
in the fructified Grace!
-- Tr by myself of Thayumanavar's song.
the original --
அத்வைதம் பெறும் பேறு
என்று அறியாமல்
யான் எனும் பேய் அகந்தையோடு
மத்தமதியினர் போல
மனம் கிடப்ப
இன்னமின்னம் வருந்துவேனோ?
சுத்தபரி பூரணமாய்,
நின்மலமாய்,
அகண்டிதமாய்ச்
சொரூபானந்தச் சக்திகள்
நீங் காதவணம் தன்மயமாய்,
அருள்பழுத்துத்
தழைத்த ஒன்றே!
***
Sri Ramakrishna wrought many miracles. Not the miracles of matter but the miracles of comprehensive understanding and empathetic integration. He took the directness of feeling from the paths of faith and combined it with the broadness of engaging in diverse discourse of the philosophical scholarship.
***
Have you ever stopped and thought about 'what is pleasure? what is enjoyment? joy? happiness?' How pleasure and thought tie up? A very interesting discussion is here in this conversation between J Krishnamurthy and Mr Anderson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeOS5seSl_I
***
My book in Tamil on Bhagavath Vishaya, viz., 'பகவத் விஷயத்தை எண்ணும் போது' is coming out in a short time. I have written this dedication page in that --
"யாரைக் கற்கும் போது
எந்த விஷயம் புரிய வருகிறது என்பது
அறிவின் தேட்டத்தில் விந்தையான கணம்தான்.
அறிவுகொளுத்துவோர்தாம்
உண்மையில் ஆசிரியர்கள்.
அயின் ரேன்டைப் படிக்கும் போது
அரிஸ்டாடில் புரிந்தது;
அரிஸ்டாடிலில் ஆழும் போது
விசிட்ட அத்வைத தர்சனம் புரிந்தது;
எனவே யாருக்கு அர்ப்பணிப்பது?
அந்த யவனாசிரியருக்கா?
அல்லது அயினாசிரியைக்கா?"
Translated it runs thus --
It is a strange moment to say,
What subject we come to understand,
When? Reading whom?
Studying something seemingly different?
Who makes us understand,
They are the Masters, really;
Reading Ayn Rand,
I came to understand Aristotle;
Delving into Aristotle,
Visishtadvaita Darsana became clear;
Then....to whom am I to dedicate?
To the Master from Ionia?
Or to the teacher Ayn?
***
Begun reading 'My Life and Quest' by Arthur Osborne, Sri Ramanasramam, 4th Ed., 2013. I like the book for the facile style of the author. He is able to pack very many mental depths into his constructions. Of course he is very lame, when he tries to compare and draw a uniform line through the religions semitic and Asian. From his writings one is able to understand much about the war years and the silent and ebullient quests of human beings across the globe. The sweat of the continents and the spiritual breeze of the East, are shown in realistic terms by the author. Gone half way. I will be back with it to you after finishing. But a very good purchase, that too in this scorching heat, such a cool and soothing reading!
***
Here is one quote from Bergen Evans --
"In the last analysis all tyranny rests on fraud, on getting someone to accept false assumptions, and any man who for one moment abandons or suspends the questioning spirit has for that moment betrayed humanity."
***
Anything that appeals to our reason, let us accept, even if a child should say it. On the other hand, anything that is repugnant to reason, let us reject, even though it might come from Brahma.
-- Do you know who said this ? இதைச் சொன்னவர் யார் என்று உங்களால் சொல்ல முடியுமா?
***
The answer is -- Sri Ramana Maharishi.
Ref: Sri Ramana Reminiscences, G V Subbaramayya, 4th Ed 2014, Sri Ramanasram
***
I thought that the Buddhist position regarding the concepts of change and unsubstantiality are quite unassailable. But Swami Vivekananda has very brilliantly shown how Advaita reconciles the positions of Buddhism vis-a - vis Advaita, in his four lectures on the subject of Practical Vedantha. Very brilliant !
***
Reality is really how many? Or how many aspects of reality make the total reality? Or how many phases of reality coalesce to form the whole reality? Dr Sir Roger Penrose says three such realitys coalesce or at least relate among themselves to form the totality of reality. The Physical reality, the mental reality, the mathematical reality. Then what is that REALITY which houses all these three?
***
இளைஞர்களுக்கு புத்திமதி சொல்றது என்றால் இது மாதிரி இருக்கணும். அதை விட்டுட்டு --
Epicurus in a letter to Menoeceus --
"Let no one when young delay to study philosophy, nor when he is old grow weary of his study. For no one can come too early or too late to secure the health of his soul. And the man who says that the age for philosophy has either not yet come or has gone by is like the man who says that the age for happiness is not yet come to him, or has passed away."
***
எபிக்யூரஸ் அருமையாகச் சொல்கிறார் மண்டையில் அடித்தால் போல் --
And the impious man is not he who denies the gods of the many, but he who attaches to the gods the beliefs of the many.
ஸூப்பர்!
* "I do not want to get material life, do not want the sense-life, but something higher." That is renunciation. Then, by the power of meditation, undo the mischief that has been done.
Swami Vivekananda
ஆன்மிக வாழ்க்கை என்ன என்பதை இரண்டு வரிகளில் முடித்து விட்டார் விவேகாநந்தர்.
***
Oh, me! I am stuck in these lines of Bert Meyers -
"Once, in autumn, I saw the sun
pause in the wrinkles of a tree
like passion on an old man’s face...."
What lines! You feel the rough skin of the trees rubbing on words. As if the universe of words overstepping the universe of things !
***
No matter to what hight you rise, to what low you sink, you can never escape discovering yourself where you are in the logging of the Life Divine. What a giant book and what sympathy the Super-Yogi should have had on human beings in pursuit, to have taken so much pains and time to have penned it! Thanks is a very self-shy meek word when one realises more and more the importance of the Book.
***
A great philosopher of the logical positivist school, A J Ayer, was uncompromising in his stand that statements which do not lend themselves to empirical verification or analytical exercise are quite meaningless. A great hit at the traditional metaphysics indeed. He was not a shy away philosopher when he confronted the unwanted advances of Mike Tyson on a new model in a party given by a fashion designer, saying 'I suggest we talk about this like rational men'.
Just one year before his death, A J Ayer had a near-death experience. On recovery he said that the experience slightly weakened his conviction that his genuine death will be the end of him. Later he opined that he should have rather told instead 'my experiences have weakened, not my belief that there is no life after death, but my inflexible attitude towards that belief'.
Strange! We demand that we should experience ourselves to accept anything. But when we do get, we try to wriggle our way out. !
***
It seems there are quite a number of victims of History in the field of thought. One such seems to be Herbert Spencer. He is one who wrote about evolution years before Darwin. But of course minus the part of natural selection. But more comprehensive than Darwin's, in that, Herbert Spencer was able to talk about evolution in the spheres of society, culture. What he wrote seems to be that evolution works towards more perfection, from the gross and banal and militant towards being more cooperative, finer and humane mutual transactions. But, lo...! history being sometimes reckless and devoid of any consideration... has branded HS with the idea of 'social darwinism'.
( History..! sometimes you do not read your texts well... be good and behave well..! :-) )
***
The human gaze has the power of conferring value on things; but it makes them cost more too.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
என் நெஞ்சினால் நோக்கிக் காணீர், என்னை முனியாதே !
- நம்மாழ்வார்
The modern artists may say, 'look! don't ask for meaning. You confer meaning by your Gaze...:-) -
just for kidding...)
***
***
Srirangam Mohanarangan
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